The Ten Worlds Discovering Hope Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes What exactly is this happiness that we spend our lives pursuing fiercely than anything else Today psychologists use the term core affect to describe the most basic feelings we experience as human bein

What exactly is this happiness that we spend our lives pursuing fiercely than anything else Today psychologists use the term core affect to describe the most basic feelings we experience as human beings Though specific emotions like anger and sadness may appear and disappear like good and bad weather, at no time are we without a core affect much in the same wayWhat exactly is this happiness that we spend our lives pursuing fiercely than anything else Today psychologists use the term core affect to describe the most basic feelings we experience as human beings Though specific emotions like anger and sadness may appear and disappear like good and bad weather, at no time are we without a core affect much in the same way that at no time are we without a body temperature.The reason our core affect changes has to do with what lies within us our mindset, if you will than with what happens to us Mindset explains why some people can be joyful and optimistic no matter what tragedy befalls them while others suffer and complain no matter what While the science documenting the influence of mindset on our core affect is relatively new, the concept of mindset itself isn t Buddhist philosophers identified the same idea than two and a half millennia ago, calling it life condition After observing the myriad guises in which the self might exist, they identified ten foundational life conditions in Nichiren Buddhism, the Ten Worlds , which are, in essence, the basic mindsets through which all human beings rotate Drs Lickerman and ElDifrawi assert that the reason genuine, long lasting happiness is so difficult to attain is that we re profoundly confused about how to go about it That is, we suffer from basic erroneous beliefs about what happiness is In The Ten Worlds, they argue that once we learn to embrace a correct understanding of happiness, we can free ourselves from the suffering those erroneous beliefs cause us and enjoy the kind of happiness found in the highest of the Ten Worlds the world of Enlightenment Happiness is something we all want yet most of us fail to achieve Drs Lickerman and ElDifrawi explain that the reason genuine, long lasting happiness is so difficult to attain is that we re profoundly confused on how to go about it They assert that once we learn to embrace the correct understanding of happiness, we can free ourselves from suffering Suffering from erroneous beliefs that are based on fleeting emotions rather than what psychologists call our core affect Over two and a half millennia ago, Buddhist philosophers identified ten foundational life conditions which are in essence, the basic mindsets through which all human beings rotate In modern science we now document the influence of mindset on our core affect In The Ten Worlds, Lickerman, a primary care physician, and ElDifrawi, a clinical psychologist dialogue on the core delusions about what makes us happy Borrowed from Nichiren Buddhism, the co authors identify ten foundational life conditions, aka the Ten Worlds, and help elucidate a path by which anyone can forge a state of happiness that resists the downward pull of adversity The Ten Worlds 1 Hell2 Hunger3 Animality4 Anger5 Tranquility8 Realization9 Compassion Bodhisattva 10 Enlightenment Buddhahood Happiness is an art The discovery of new and ancient paths to happiness, and the myriad other concepts of the happiness enigma will forever intrigue us Once we free ourselves from our limiting beliefs, we may experience the kind of happiness found in the highest of the Ten Worlds the world of Enlightenment.